Record changer adapter



11, 1969 KOSUKE MATSUKATA 3,427,033

RECORD CHANGER ADAPTER File d March 11, 1966 Sheet of 2 I MMW r ATTORNEYS 11, 1969 KOSUKE MATSUKATA 3,427,033

' RECORD CHANGER ADAPTER Filed March 11, 1966 Sheet 2 of2 ATTORNEY United States Patent Office 3,427,033 Patented Feb. 11, 1969 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An adapter device for attachment to a film sheet gramophone record. The adapter has a ring with a spiral groove track on one face thereof to receive the needle of a tone arm, and a holder having a center hole positioned coaxially with the ring. A film sheet record is disposed between the adapter and the holder and is held in position by adhesive coated tape means on the opposed faces of the ring and the holder. The ring has a flexible tongue branching oif the inner periphery thereof with the inner end of the spiral grooved track extending from said ring along said tongue. The tongue is adapted to be aligned with the sound track of the film sheet exposed through the center of the ring.

This invention is an improvement in or modification of my US. Patent No. 3,201,133 which relates to a device for use with disc type gramophone sound records, particularly thin film sheet sound records, which enables such records to be handled by any conventional record changer.

Vinyl film sheet having a thickness measuring from 0.07 mm. to 0.5 mm. is being used for sound records, and it has been found that such film sheet having a thickness, for example, of about 0.3 mm. produces a sound effect which difiers from that of a conventional hard record, the film sheet giving vivid reproduction of the natural human male voice without careful use of bass control devices. It has also been found that single sided recording is superior to double sided recording, and this is probably due to the fact that the thinner record for single sided recording facilitates transfer of groove texture from the mother metal mould to the film sheet. In order that thin film sheet can be played on a record changer effectively, the following points must be taken into account:

(1) The transfer of the tone arm needle from an adapter device to the film sheet must be elfected as smoothly as possible so that needle enters the leading spiral groove of film sheet easily without contacting the edge of the device;

(2) The device and film sheet must be combined as lightly and effectively as possible during playing; and

(3) It must be possible to use effectively both of the two different systems at present used in record changers for dropping a record to the turntable from a centre spindle.

The present invention is a device for attachment to a film sheet gramophone record, comprising an adapter in the form of a ring having a spiral grooved track on one face thereof to receive a needle of a tone arm, and a holder having a centre hole and adapted to be arranged coaxially with a film sheet record disposed between the said adapter and holder and to be releasably secured to them with pieces of adhesive coated tape, the sound track of the film sheet being exposed to permit the travel of the needle of the tone arm from the grooved track on the adapter to the sound track on the film sheet record.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of an adapter for use in a device in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is another top plan view of the adapter 0 FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3a is a bottom plan view of the adapter of FIGURE 2,

FIGURE 3b is a section showing pieces of single sided adhesive coated tape assembled so as to be used as substitute for double sided sticky tape, for use in the device according to the present invention;

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of a holder for use in a device in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 5a is a bottom plan view of the holder of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 5b is a section taken through the holder of FIGURE 5a,

FIGURE 6 is a partial section taken through a device in accordance with the present invention; and

FIGURE 7 is a top plan view of the device of FIG URE 6.

In carrying the invention into effect according to one convenient mode by way of example, FIGURE 1 shows an adapter 1 in ring form having an outer radius equal to that of a conventional record and an inner radius a little bigger than the radius of a spirally grooved track of a film sheet record. The adapter is composed of a synthetic plastic material such as polyvinyl chloride and has a thickness of about 0.4 mm. to 0.5 mm. The adapter 1 is provided with spirally grooved track 2 to receive the needle of tone arm and guide it to the inner end 3 of the track 2 at the inner periphery of the adapter 1. At about 4 cm. from the inner end along the inner circumferential edge of the adapter, a flexible tongue 5 is cut and branched off from the main body of the adapter, the out between the tongue 5 an the body of the adapter ending in a stop hole 6. The end of the tongue 5 is cut off at about one quarter of the way around the circumference so as to provide the tongue 5 with a stepped end and so as to avoid the danger of contact of the needle of the tone arm with the inner edge 4 of the adapter as a result of the needle inadvertently leaving the track 2 over the last portion of the tongue. The tongue piece 5 is important since the lead-in grooves on film sheet are not uniformly spaced and in some cases may have only a few turns. The end 3 of the track 2 of the adapter must therefore be placed as accurately as possible upon the spirally grooved track of the film sheet 12. In order to cope with small sized film sheet of 17 cm., diameter instead of 17.5 cm., without using the flexible tongue piece 5, it would be necessary to make a special adapter. FIGURE 2 shows the tongue 5 with its outer edge spaced from the main body of the adapter 1. Movement of the tongue 5 in a radial direction enables the end 3 of the track 2 to be positioned accurately regardless of the position of the lead in groove on any particular film sheet record. FIGURES 3a and 4 show the method of attaching the adapter 1 to the film sheet 12 and holder 8 using double side adhesive coated tape 7A, 7B, 7C and 7G. Double sided adhesive coated Cellophane (registered trademark) tape having a width of from 3 to 4 cm. can be used effectively if it is pressed hard first on the back of the adapter 1 and the front of the holder 8 (FIGURES 4 and 5a) resulting in better adhesion than by sticking it to oppositing sides. As the film sheet 12 is detached from time to time from the adapter 1 and the holder 8, the adhesion of the tape to the adapter 1 and holder 8 tends to increase, while due to dust or grease, if the sides of double sided tape are exposed the adhesive force is weakened, though it has been found that more than two hundred changes of film sheets does not prevent effective combination of the three elements required for playing on a record changer. In FIG. 3b, an arrangement making possible the use of single sided tape as a substitute for double sided tape is shown. End pieces 7D and 7F of tape hold down a middle piece 7E 3 whose adhesive coated side faces upwards to receive the film sheet.

FIGURE 50 shows the provision of an annular raised portion 9 around centre spindle hole 10 underneath the holder 8. The portion 9 has a height of about 0.5 mm. This difference in height enables both conventional pusher type and umbrella centre spindle type recorder changers to function properly in dropping a film sheet record held in a device according to the present invention, without causing dropping of two records at the same time. The arms of the umbrella type centre spindle record changers recently adopted by some record changer manufacturers do not allow the use of a holder 8 having a thickness around the centre hole 10 of more than 1.5 mm. including the thickness of the film sheet, While for the conventional pusher type centre spindle record changer a thickness of at least 1.5 mm. between the top surface of the film sheet 12 and the underneath of the holder 8 is required to prevent dropping of two records at the same time. This divergence of requirements can be dealt with by the portion 9.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, it will be understood that other structural arrangements and designs might be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

The embodiments of this invention in which an exclusive property of privilege is claimed are defined as follows.

I claim:

1. An adapter device for attachment to a film sheet gramophone record, comprising a ring having a spiral grooved track on one face thereof to receive a needle of a tone arm, a holder having a centre hole and positioned coaxially with said ring and adapted to have a film sheet record disposed between the said adapter and holder, and adhesive coated tape means on the side of said ring facing said holder for adhering the ring to a film sheet and on the face of said holder facing said ring for adhering said holder to a film sheet, said ring having flexible tongue branching off the inner periphery there-of and the inner end of the said spiral grooved track extending from said ring along said tongue and adapted to be aligned with the sound track of the film sheet exposed through the centre of the ring to permit the travel of the needle of the tone arm from the grooved track on the ring to the sound track on the film sheet record.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the adapter is composed of a synthetic plastic material having a thickness of about 0.4 mm. to 0.5 mm.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the holder has an annular raised portion coaxial with the centre hole and on the face away from said ring, the thickness of the holder at the centre hole together with the film sheet record not exceeding 1.5 mm.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein there is a cut between the outer edge of said tongue and the inner edge of said ring ending in a hole where said tongue is attached to said ring.

5. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tape means is tape adhesive coated on both sides.

6. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tape means comprises a first piece of tape adhesive coated on one side and at least one second piece of tape coated on one side and having a part coated side and a part coated side of said first piece of tape to leave a part of adhesive coated surface of each facing outwardly on opposite sides of said tape means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,360,271 12/ 1967 George 274-42 3,201,133 8/1965 Matsukata 274-42 3,169,023 2/1965 Rivas 274-42 3,051,496 8/ 1962 Borgia 274-42 LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner.

F. J. DAMBROSIO, Assistant Examiner. 

